Snowmaking at Heavenly

Heavenly Mountain Resort, Lake Tahoe, CA/NV—Heavenly Mountain Resort announced today that it began making snow last night — one of the first signs that the Lake Tahoe snowsports season is right around the corner. The West Coast’s largest snowmaking system can cover 70 percent of Heavenly’s trails in machine made snow, giving the resort’s patrons confidence that they will be skiing and riding by November 17, Heavenly’s scheduled opening day.

Under optimum conditions, Heavenly can produce three-and-a-half feet of snow over one acre in an hour. That’s enough snow to blanket a football field with eight-and-a-half feet during an average three-hour game.

“It’s comforting to know that when it’s cold, we have snow, said John Wagnon, Heavenly’s vice-president of marketing and sales. “Our guests are able to make early-season plans and bereasonably confident they’ll be skiing and riding on the best and most consistent snow surface at Lake Tahoe.

Two small storms in the last couple of weeks have already deposited about a foot of snow on the mountain’s higher reaches, but with late autumn’s colder temperatures, Heavenly officials felt it was time to give Mother Nature a helping hand by starting to lay down a base of snow for the winter.

“Snowmaking is really all about putting down a solid product that skiers and riders can depend on from the get-go, said Jim Larmore, Heavenly’s director of snow surfaces. “This system is so efficient, it packs more punch than the other snowmaking systems in the Tahoe basin combined.

Heavenly has begun making snow on Big Dipper and Orion, its two signature runs on the Nevada side, as well as area at the top of Heavenly’s gondola.

For information on booking a snowsports vacation package or purchasing a Heavenly season pass, or to monitor the snowmaking process via Heavenly’s web cams, visit www.skiheavenly.com.

About HeavenlyHeavenly Mountain Resort is a world-class destination offering guests a one-of-a-kind combination of scenic beauty and exhilarating on-snow experience. Heavenly is a subsidiary of Vail Resorts, Inc., the leading mountain resort operator in the United States. In addition to Heavenly, Vail Resorts, Inc. owns and operates the Colorado mountain resorts of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone, and the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Company also holds a majority interest in RockResorts, a luxury resort hotel company with 11 distinctive properties across the United States. Vail Resorts Development Company is the real estate planning, development, construction, retail leasing and management subsidiary of Vail Resorts, Inc. Vail Resorts is a publicly held company traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: MTN). The Vail Resorts company website is www.vailresorts.com and consumer website is www.snow.com.

For more information on Heavenly, please visit www.skiheavenly.com or call 1-800-HEAVENLY.